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LC 6301 
.U5 B7 
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DfiiversitY and Scheel Erxtensien. 



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GERMAN. 



1889. 



H. H. BOYESEN, 

Columbia College. 



Press of J. J. Little & Co, 
Aster Place, New York. 



CoPYRIGHT> 
1889, 

By H. H. BOYESEN. 



Courses in German. 

LANGUAGE. 

FIRST YEAR. 

Dreyspring : The Cumulative Method in German. 

Dreyspring : Easy Lessons in German. 

Dreyspring : German Verb Drill. 

Van der Smissen : Kinder- und Hausmarchen der Ge- 
briider Grimm. 

SECOND YEAR. 

Schiller : Wilhelm Tell (Buchheim's edition). 

Heine's Prosa (Buchheim's edition). 

Dr. W. Bernhardt : Deutsche Novelletten Bibliothek. 
2 vols. 

Goethe's Prosa (Hart's edition). 

Goethe's " Faust " (First Part. Hart's edition. Com- 
mentary will be found in Boyesen's Goethe and Schiller). 
The above recommendations are to be interpreted as mere sug- 
gestions to the student. Personally, I prefer Professor Dreyspring's 
method to any other with which I am acquainted ; but it is difficult 



UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 



to decide the conflicting claims of the many excellent grammars and 
texts which are at the student's disposal. Collar's " Eysenbach's 
German Lessons " I have found to be an excellent book for begin- 
ners ; but it will have to be supplemented by some such reader as 
Prof. Whitney's or Van der Smissen's '' Grimm's Kinder- und Haus- 
marchen." The course proposed for the second year would require 
a considerable amount of study for its completion ; but I would 
recommend that it be adhered to, in the order indicated, without 
change. 

LITERATURE. 

FIRST YEAR. 

Scherer's " History of German Literature." 2 vols. 

Dippold : " Great Epics of Mediaeval Germany." 

Boyesen : " Goethe and Schiller," containing a Com- 
mentary to " Faust." 

SECOND YEAR. 

Freytag: Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit. 5 
Bde. 

Haym, R. : Die Romantische Schule. 

Schmidt, Julian : Geschichte der deutschen Literatur 
seit Lessing's Tod. 3 Bde. 
The course of reading outlined above aims to present during the 
first year, a general survey of the entire field of German Literature,! 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 5 

and particularly to emphasize the connection of literature with social 
phenomena. The merit of Scherer's work is that it never loses sight 
of this connection, and deals with literary monuments as illustrations 
and expressions of social conditions, whose chief value is frequently 
historical rather than aesthetic. It is the drama of German civilization, 
with its progressive development, from act to act, which Scherer traces, 
with occasional breaks, through ten or eleven centuries of German 
literature. I have added to this two works dealing with the two most 
important periods of German intellectual activity, — what some lite- 
rary historians are fond of calling the first and the second classical 
period. It is not expected that the student, during the first year, will 
be competent to read scholarly works in the German language, and 
I have therefore confined my recommendations, during that year, to 
works written in English. It is not intended, however, that he 
should begin the study of German literature until the second year 
of his study of the language. 

The course recommended for the second year aims to emphasize 
further the sociological value of literature ; and moreover to present 
facilities for a completer and more thorough study of the literature of 
the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. Freytag's 
admirable work will be found no less entertaining than instructive. 
Though not pretending to be a coherent history, it takes up, one by 
one, the most salient features of German life and character, and in 
vivid colors depicts the changing panorama of German civilization 
from the earliest historic period down to recent times. Dr. Julian 
Schmidt's " Geschichte der deutschen Literatur seit Lessing's Tod " 
gives, on the whole, the fullest and the most graphic and impartial 



UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 



account of the great era of German literature which has been justly 
designated the classical. If, however, any student prefers to substi- 
tute the last three volumes of Gervinus' " Geschichte der deutschen 
Dichtung " or Koberstein's " Grundriss der Geschichte der deutschen 
Nationalliteratur " (edition of 1884, by Bartsch), I have no objec- 
tion. I am, however, of opinion that Schmidt's work will be found 
more serviceable. 



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